My Favorite Kind Of Treasure
by Anhai
Summary: G1. Silverbolt knew by now that to ask his team 'why' was to cheerfully invite stupidity in through the front door.


"Fireflight."

The red jet jumped at his leader's voice and turned his head slowly to look over his shoulder, an empty energon cube hanging from his mouth.

"Yus Shilberbol'?"

Silverbolt sighed and offline his optics, a groan building in his vocalizer as he brought a hand up to cradle his head. "Look, Fireflight, I really don't want to know. Just...do I even have to tell you what will happen if I come back and this place is still..." he flicked his optics on momentarily to scan the Aerialbots' hanger before clicking them off again with a shudder. "Like...this?"

There was a moment of silence as Silverbolt listened to Fireflight shuffle about. He wasn't going to turn on his optics. He wasn't going to turn on his optics. He wasn't going to think about Fireflight covered in energon with a cube gripped in his mouth as he tried to figure out how to untangle himself from the streamers that had somehow managed to get _everywhere _on his person. He wasn't going to...

Damn it.

"No, Shilberbol'"

The Aerialbot commander sighed heavily. "Good, good. Now, I'm going to go find Hot Spot. I'll be back in thr-" there was muffled snickering coming from behind the couch. It sounded like Air Raid. "_Hours_. Three hours. I'll probably be in Hot Spot's qua-" more muffled snickering and Silverbolt smiled a noticeably strained smile. "_Quarters_ if you need me. We will be _talking_. _Air Raid._"

The snickering morphed into loud, strangled sounding guffaws and even Fireflight was giggling. Silverbolt knew if he onlined his optics he'd see Skydive trying to fight back a smirk. He...wasn't going to look at Slingshot. Not at all. Period.

"Sure, well, I'll see you later, then, I guess." Silverbolt onlined his optics finally, stubbornly not looking at the hopelessly tangled Fireflight with the shredded bow stuck to his head, or Air Raid's paint covered leg hanging over the back of the couch, or at Skydive in the corner with...bits of fluff that looked to be glued to his armor and who had his hands tangled with pink ribbon. And...Slingshot.

Silverbolt just didn't look up.

"And, by the way, I don't know _how_ you did it." Silverbolt said in voice that was so calm it _strained_, stubbornly keeping his optics fixed on the wall behind Fireflight. "But Slingshot had better be un-cocooned and right-side up – that means _not _dangling upside down from the ceiling, _Air Raid_ - within the next hour or I _will_ be taking you all to see Ratchet a little earlier than we'd planned, do I make myself clear?_"_ There was the sound of something heavy swinging and several unintelligible 'mmph!'s' from directly above Silverbolt's head.

The threat of Ratchet convinced Air Raid to stop laughing, though Silverbolt could still hear his muffled giggles. He...wasn't even going to bother.

Silverbolt nodded once and turned on his heel. He was three steps from the door when Skydive hissed something at Fireflight and the F-4 gave a strangled noise and, from the loud crash that followed, probably ended up tripping over himself.

"Shilberbol'!" He apparently hadn't dropped the cube, however.

The Aerialbot commander froze and sighed, off lining his optics again. "_Yes_, Fireflight?" he asked, tone weary and tense as he turned back to watch his gestalt mate shuffle and waver his way over to him as best he could tied up.

"Shilberbol'!" Fireflight declared happily once he managed to reach his leader.

Fireflight chewed determinedly on the cube he still had in his mouth and stood on tip-toe, trying to reach Silverbolt's head. "Baend down!" Silverbolt hesitated before obliging, leaning forward slightly to let Fireflight do...whatever it was Fireflight wanted to do. This probably wasn't the smartest thing to do but, really? He didn't think there was much more they could do to him at this..._point_.

The energon cube was dropped on his head, open side down. "Happy birthday!" Fireflight said with a bright grin and a mischievous tilt to his head, because the little slagger knew _exactly_ what he was doing.

Silverbolt was completely still for a long moment before straightening, face carefully blank as he stared at the red jet. "Thank you, Fireflight." He said finally, and slowly reached over to pat his gestalt mate on the head before abruptly turning and leaving. He ignored Air Raid and Skydive's quiet snickering and Slingshot's annoyed, unintelligible demands for attention.

He was half-way down the hall before he finally pulled the cube off his head and held it carefully in both hands. Silverbolt stared down at it. It may have been just a silly joke pulled by his brothers for a laugh and _only _that. But...

The gestalt commander lightly tossed the cube into the air and caught it in one hand, a soft, silly grin on his face. It was a _gift_. Even if the 'present' hadn't really been a 'present', it was still...

Yes, Silverbolt was sure that a silly, dopey grin and the little jig he did in the middle of the hallway were both absolutely and completely necessary.

Then he gathered himself up like the commander he was supposed to be, and went to go find Hot Spot.


End file.
